Heaven
by HeadlessHedwig
Summary: A view into the slave girl Akkarin first loved. One shot.


Freedom

They could hear the wind whistling outside, battering everything around like Dekova on a bad day. Neither of them paid it any mind. Everything had stopped.

"Are you sure he won't come in?" The voice was Sachakan and as such sounded harsh, but Akkarin could hear the softness in the words, the hope that she had squashed for fear of further punishment. "I'm sure; he's laid up with 'health issues' courtesy of the cook. I think we will be fine."

A slow smile spread across the bruised face and an even slower hand reached out tentatively. Akkarin brought his hand to meet it, wrapping his thin fingers around it and smiling as she looked down, away from his face, colour spreading through her own. "Embarrassment?"

His other hand gently took her chin, easing it around so that he could watch the colour spreading. It made an amazing difference to the purple and green that normally covered her. Suddenly she seemed alive, less fragile, solid.

"Nervous," came the timid Sachakan, "Scared."

Akkarin retreated dropping his hands away from her. "We don't need to do this. I can return to Dekova and pretend ignorance to the cause and treatment of his illness. You can go back –"

With firm steps she moved forward, pressing her body against his and hiding her face in the pitiful thing he used as a shirt. Part of him yelled in triumph at the non-violent human contact and the other half reeled from delayed shock. Emaciated arms held his back keeping her as close to him as possible, and he heard her muffle a sob. She wanted comfort, reassurance and love, something they all wanted, something that showed their predicament was transitory, open to manipulation and change. The lack of hostility in his touch and manner had floored her as well.

Determined to hold back his own building emotion he attempted to give her what she needed. "Ssshh." A kiss was placed on her auburn hair and he encircled his arms around her, desperately focussing on the healing lessons that had taught him techniques to release the tension he could feel in her back. He had the guild to focus on, to give him hope when this all became too much, she had nothing. "It's okay." He could feel her quivering under his touch, a combination of cold and uncertainty. "I won't leave you."

There was noise similar to a snort in answer to this; she wasn't too far down the path of self -delusion to let that go unquestioned. "You have your Magician's Guild to return to Akkarin. I don't have a place there, freed or not." Despite the disparaging words she remained close to him, as close as she could possibly get before sharing a body.

"I don't have to stay with them. We could move to Elyne. Ambassadorial roles are always coming up there, I think the new man who was elected before I left is driving his assistants up the proverbial wall."

There was a moment's pause where all they could hear was Mother Nature battering the living crap out of the desert wasteland and anyone unfortunate enough to be out in her. "You serve them heart and soul, Akkarin, we can all see it in your face. The Guild has all your love and loyalty. I don't want to be the reason you compromise that for an ambassadorship away from the buzz of Kyralia."

"I do not need to be loyal to only one person or institution."

"Please, Akkarin don't let me be the woman to test that. Dekova does not want us together and our positions dictate we shouldn't be either. I shouldn't even be touching you right now. I dread to think what the punishment would be if we are found"

Desperate to see her face he pulled it out of his shoulder. He wanted her to see the conviction as well as hear it in his next words. If something was worth doing it was worth doing properly. With something as important as this he didn't want to mess it up. "The first year here tested my belief in an institution I had always been taught to respect. I still cannot believe we were so ignorant of what was out here. Every time Dekova or some other Ichani drain my magic I doubt myself and the Guild. But I won't change the fact they are my family. Lorlen and my parents trust it intrinsically and I will too. There is a deeper explanation here than just the one Dekova would have me believe. We do not survive for over five hundred years as weak babies.

Let me help you, as my guild help me. I don't want to back away just because you believe fate says we are not meant to do this. You do not test my loyalty. There is no choice involved here.

Hope began to kindle behind her eyes, the lighting up the dark green depths. They shone with unshed tears and leaning forward he pressed his mouth to a cut in her hairline, tasting the dried salt in her blood. "I know you think you are born to this, are not worthy to rise above what you are, and therefore don't hope for escape, but I promise it's not true and freedom will come. We will get out of this. I refuse to die as a slave to a man I detest and you shouldn't want to either."

"You should be the guild's bloody leader with speechmaking like that. They would roll over and beg if you spoke to them with that tone." Sarcasm with an edge of seriousness coloured the sachakan and he got the impression that was what she expected him to do. _Not without you,_ he thought to himself

"They'd follow anyone who wielded the juiciest piece of gossip."

Another snort issued from her, this time lacking all the derision of its earlier counterpart. She actually sounded amused and it lifted his heart from his bare feet for the first time in over a year. "Oh, Akkarin you are a unique human being! I will play along with you for now. I am too disenchanted to put my faith in you entirely, I was born a slave and I will die a slave. If I do not than I will think of a suitable way to repay you when the time comes but until I can sleep in when I want, feed myself, and not have to perform sex acts for a man I cannot stand, I will not delude myself. Sometimes, putting your belief in a hope that will never come to fruition is worse than any torture these foul minded, short sighted, ignorant little shits can put you through. Live in the present Akkarin, fix what you can today and think about tomorrow when tomorrow dawns. With our precarious position in society we will be lucky to see it."

Like that the hope was hidden from him and he was left staring at a slightly red tinged face. Her body was firm now, the shaking dispelled with her resolution. There would be no more persuading her, he would just have to hope that she lived to see he was right.

'_Please let me be right'_

Lacking all previous nervousness she stood on her tip toes and kissed his mouth, recognising the squashed desire to argue. He was the easiest man to read on this earth, it was what made his presence such a strong one in the wastes. The other slaves, especially Takan the cook, couldn't help but get behind him, despite the fact he was a man condemned a hundred times over for being a member of the Kyralian Guild. Underneath the despair and listlessness that overcame him regularly there was a will of the hardest material she could name. It was always present, and it infuriated Dekova; not always a good thing for the other slaves, but something they had accepted. That was saying something for a body of men and women who were reared with respect and obedience inbuilt into their every lesson. A properly raised slave was one who would never speak against a master, no matter how cruel he was to them, and who did everything they could defend them against any type of onslaught. It was all they knew and all they expected. Their master was the man who fed them and gave them a place to sleep. He gave them life and they were told constantly that was the highest honour anyone could bestow.

Akkarin had already changed her mind set from that of a brainless slave. Any further leaps and she doubted she would recognise herself. It was a revelation for both her and the other slaves.

For now though he was to be_ her_ revelation, _her_ pet magician, someone to show her the real side of a romantic relationship. He would escape and return to Kyralia, of that she was sure. But he would do it without her; without any ties to a part of his life he longed to forget. He could return to Lorlen and the other lords and ladies of civilised society and excel at their game, using what he had learned in Sachaka to further himself; help Kyralia's answer to the wastes. If, in however- many- year's- time, he returned for her, for the other slaves, then so be it. But she didn't expect it.

All she expected was that, in the next ten minutes or so, she would learn what it was to be a proper woman.

Hope, regardless of whether she would admit it to herself, had been building since he had arrived.

Freedom came for her, not the type of freedom he had promised her, not the type of freedom he wanted for her; for himself, but freedom nonetheless. It was the type of freedom that everyone experiences at some point in their lives, the great equaliser of the human race; the final breaking of the self- inflicted bonds everyone places on themselves.

It was heaven.

_**Author's Note: I hope this was okay. I promise TBAO is coming. I have nearly finished the chapter but this just itched to be written. Reviews are more than welcome be them constructive feedback or the gushing kind. Thank you for reading, it means a lot.**_

_**HeadlessHedwig**_


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